Courses 2013 - 2014

LAW B 576 Climate Justice Seminar

Credits: 1-6, Variable

The law school is offering a unique multidisciplinary seminar on Climate Justice this winter and spring quarters. Jeni Barcelos and Jen Marlow, Co–Executive Directors of the law school’s Three Degrees Project (www.threedegreeswarmer.org), will teach the course, along with David Battisti, Tamaki Endowed Chair of Atmospheric Sciences, and one graduate teaching fellow.

The Climate Justice Seminar is open to 25 graduate and professional students from across the University of Washington by application (although law students need not apply). The course examines predicted climate futures in locations around the globe where climate change is likely to harm disadvantaged populations, with the goal of understanding the limitations and strengths of the international and domestic legal and political systems available to alleviate these impacts. The winter quarter will focus on global climate-related impacts to health, food and water, security, equity, and justice. The spring quarter will follow a clinical model of project-based work, where a select group of students and faculty will work for communities impacted by the climate crisis to create climate adaptation assessments and apply corresponding legal and policy tools to further climate justice goals.

Students will work in multidisciplinary groups and be advised by the team of core faculty. All students must agree to participate in the winter quarter, but enrollees may opt-in or opt-out of applied project work for spring quarter (winter quarter, 4 credits; spring quarter, 1 credit).

More information about the seminar, including the application form, can be found at http://www.law.washington.edu/ThreeDegrees/Seminar/Default.aspx.